William and tax on the Duchy of Cornwall

[GardenDancing]

I keep reading that William doesn’t declare the amount of tax he pays on the Duchy of Cornwall. Apparently Charles did when he was Prince of Wales and sources say that William is paying appropriate tax, so why do you think he declines to be as transparent as his father was? I understand he isn’t obliged to share it, but people seemed annoyed and suspicious that he isn’t. If he’s paying appropriate tax like we are told, which I’m presuming is true, why wouldn’t he just share that to stop people speculating?

More like laughable!
I would rather beat myself around the head with a three week old kipper than pledge allegiance to a monarch

He should be pledging allegiance to us the people

I feel sorry for MPs who have to do this to be sworn in as an MP

No one in the uk needs to declare their tax returns in public.

We have been reminded of that constantly on this thread. It's getting a bit boring now. I doubt he does a tax return anyway!

It is not about whether he is obliged to by law, it is whether he ought to because of optics and because his father always has.

DH’s father bought a television for QE2’s coronation and all the neighbours came round to watch it. That happened in many homes. Perhaps that was what was in the minds of the organisers.

Blimey, harking back 75 years ago is a bit much!

In the context of over 1000 years of a constitutional monarchy it’s chicken feed!

I’m presuming it’s not true or otherwise he’d declare it 🤷‍♀️. He’s clearly hiding something.

Yes because he’s just like the rest of us 🙄

I'm currently a couple of chapters in to Norman Baker's 'Royal Mint:National Debt' which is already an eye opener.

The chapter on the Duchies states that not only has W refused to declare his tax, C3 has now stopped declaring even the limited figures that were previously the case.

Maybe he's embarrassed about what he's paying too.

Another day another nasty thread

In fairness, you could say "another day of nasty hypocracy", because until they start paying income tax (on what is considered personal income - not state funds) then I'm not sure why people should stop talking about it. There are many other European Royal families who do pay income tax (to show that laws apply to all).

It isn't nasty. Unlike a lot of them on the Royal board. It is talking about transparency of the Monarchy's finances.

Well that wasn't publicised was it? Just quietly happened.

Thanks for the reminder re the new Norman Baker , I’ll buy that now.

In my opinion the Windsors are taking advantage of being above the law re tax and stuffing their coffers now .
They know they are finished .
It’s a matter of when not if.
And this refusal to reveal if and how much tax they are paying makes a complete mockery of their so called ‘duty’
Their only duty is to themselves and always has been .

totally agree, why does William need/justify £25m in personal play money (generated by state assets), when the entire cost of other European royal families is much less - I don't think most people understand how Royal finances work, and if they did they'd be outraged.

The public account committee is complaining about the taxpayer leasing dartmoor prison costing 100s of millions over the course of the lease when it cant be used as a prison. The money goes to the Duchy of Cornwall. The Tory government signed an exttremely one-sided decades long contract for it. Maybe things like this will teach the government and future governments that forelock tugging to the Royals and handing money over to them without scrutiny or due dilligence will eventually come back and bite someone in the bum.

The state assets you refer to used to belong to the RF. They handed them over on the understanding that they'd be paid an allowance. That was the deal.

I bet the Dukes of Devonshire, Buccleugh, Westminister etc. pull in a damn site more than the Mountbatten-Windsors do.

The British RF did, until George vi ( not sure why) then his daughter decided she wasnt going to bother either. I wonder if, rather than William not declaring his tax because he didnt want to embarrass his father ( unlikely) Charles has stopped declaring his because William didnt like the comparison between him and Charles?

Thats the Crown Estates. The Duchies are deliberately so murky that no one can unravel them, but they are basically private assets when it comes to charging charities market rent but state assets when it comes to them paying tax ( no corporation tax on that market rent and voluntary income tax). Why do they need to be double billionnaires and how can they go around preaching about charity homelessness and the environment and all the other things that need money while not being prepared to show what they themselves are contributing?

As the Royal family no longer exist to 'rule' and now exist to 'serve' - why does the prince of wales need £25m p.a. in play money?
Perhaps, at the time the 'allowance' was agreed it was not anticipated that the Duchy of Cornwall would generate such an embarrasing amount of money and as such the arrangement needs significant change.

Other European Monarchs are given allowances, decided by their parliment, rising with CPI and are totally transparent.

I'm not against an allowance existing, but the money now being generated is clearly not appropriate considering the struggles that most UK people face everyday. Not paying tax on a £25m holiday fund is just the turd on the cake.

I think you've hit the nail on the head. (And I am still laughing at the notion that William is not declaring his tax because he's embarrassed at how much he pays!)

When a Monarch ages (like QE2 did, like Charles is) I am sure they just give in for a quiet life. William has probably said he is never going to declare how much tax he pays on his Duchy income. It has got a fair bit of negative publicity (BBC, Guardian, Sky news) so Charles has weakly agreed to stop declaring his too. Which is really weird after he's done so for twenty years. It is most likely so he doesn't show his son and heir up and who knows William might have forced the issue in some way.

We think it's all smoke and mirrors now, I will bet that it's nothing compared to what it will be like when William takes over.

I know this thread is about the Duchy of Cornwall, but how the Queen was able to use money from the Duchy of Lancaster to pay £9m to settle Andrews lawsuit in the US still boils my piss as well.
The Duchy's are state owned, so state owned assets generated money that a private citizen then used to pay off his alleged sex crime victim - that should be some kind of crime, but everyones OK with it - Oh look here's another picture of the royal kids.... everythings OK then.

The Duchy's payment system needs cancelling, all money from them needs to go to the Treasury or relevent Councils and then a seperate 'allowance' decided by parliment, anything else continues the corruption.

In the 'similar threads' section below this one I can see this has been discussed many times before - how can this actually be changed? would Starmer have to step-up?

We think it's all smoke and mirrors now, I will bet that it's nothing compared to what it will be like when William takes over.

Agree, There is absolutely no evidence that William is going to modernise the Monarchy in any way, apart from by doing less work and being less visible, but wanting less scrutiny of his own financial arrangements and trousering as much cash as he can. Any change that happens will have to be forced on him by the weight of public opinion and the risk that the whole scam will be investigated

The Crown Estates were handed over (George III, 1760, as further upthread). A proportion of the profits from them forms the Sovereign Grant, for official duties and upkeep of palaces (currently 12%, reviewed every 5 yrs).

They Duchy of Lancaster and Duchy of Cornwall remained private estates to support the monarch and heir respectively, with specific restrictions to ensure they remained financially viable.

The Prince of Wales pays for the Kensington Palace operation out of the profits of the Duchy, so not just 'play money' or a 'holiday fund'. It is recorded on the Duchy accounts (a legal document) that he pays tax on the net income at the prevailing rates.

I don't know why paying tax stopped when the late Queen ascended the throne - I think they should have continued as they did from Victoria to George VI. I'm glad they restarted.
I don't think the amount should have to be declared while it remains private by law in the UK, including for other public figures who are actually paid by the taxpayer. Some may choose to reveal it, which is a personal decision.

[Duke of Buccleuch: worth north of £200m, land almost double area of Duchy of Cornwall; Duke of Devonshire approx £910m; Duke of Westminster £10bn]

I know this thread is about the Duchy of Cornwall, but how the Queen was able to use money from the Duchy of Lancaster to pay £9m to settle Andrews lawsuit in the US still boils my piss as well.

Do you have a link for that, please?

I haven't yet seen a reference for the amount or the source of the funding. I would have expected any money to be from separate personal funds rather than Duchy funds, so am surprised.